When we play with fire, we get burned. By granting an interview to the monthly very right-handed The Wrong with his counterparts from the National Rally (RN) and Reconquest, the president of the Young Republicans (LR), Guilhem Carayon, has unleashed the anger of part of his camp. The controversy illustrates the existential crisis of the heir to the UMP, unable to demonstrate his raison d’être and shaken at the slightest political error by one of his executives.
Wednesday, The Wrong unveils its new front page on social networks. Guilhem Carayon (LR), Pierre-Romain Thionnet (RN) and Stanislas Rigault (Reconquest) pose, smiling. The elected LR is exiled on the left, the zemmouriste is in the center. “Young people cut the cord”, is it written in big red letters. An allusion to the sanitary cordon, a moral dam erected between the right and the extreme right. That’s good: founded by relatives of Marion Maréchal, The Wrong promotes since its creation the union of rights. On Twitter, the newspaper boasts of a cross interview aimed at “testing the extent of their compatibility”.
“We are neither Macron nor Le Pen”
The staging marries the political agenda of the title. It arouses the anger of the moderate wing of LR. The president of the Essonne Departmental Council, François Durovray, denounces a “fatal confusion” and calls on Eric Ciotti to dismiss Guilhem Carayon from his post. “We are neither Macron nor Le Pen. If the history of our political family does not suit him, he is free to leave”, abounds MP Raphaël Schellenberger. The interested party evokes a “misleading” cover and reaffirms to L’Express his opposition to the union of the rights. The young vice-president of LR gives oxygen to Reconquest, the only formation to claim this rally. “It’s a communication fault”, slice an LR strategist. “Carayon was stupid, let go of another. The Wrong this is not his first attempt…”
The boss of young LR defends a debate with “contradictors” and takes refuge behind the content of the interview. “Debating with a communist does not make me an admirer of Lenin. Speaking in The WrongI am speaking to voters more to the right than me and who must be convinced.” This “contradiction” is not immediately apparent when reading the interview. Denunciation of wokism, criticism of migratory laxity, regal firmness… Convergences accumulate.
Mute on values
Guilhem Carayon just castigates the “utopian and unfinanceable” program of the RN in economic matters. “A few years ago, young people from different more or less right-wing parties did not want to talk to each other when they already thought the same way on most subjects. We, on many issues, we have points of convergence, in particular on insecurity and the civilizational crisis”, he assumes at the end of the interview. The vice-president never evokes different values between the three formations or denounces the radicalism of his competitors, followers of national preference or the racist theory of the Great Replacement. Omissions sometimes make more sense than statements.
Guilhem Carayon, on the other hand, reaffirms LR’s line of independence, “the only one capable of winning a presidential election but also and above all of meeting the immense challenges facing our country”. “LR has more competence to straighten out France […] And unlike the RN and Reconquête, we believe that immigration is not the source of all our ills. There is also the relationship to work”, he adds to L’Express. Sufficient to avoid any sanction. Eric Ciotti on Wednesday evening gave his support to Guilhem Carayon, of whom he approves of every word.
The famous “skills” of LR
By assuming “these points of convergence”, the vice-president of LR wants to attract the most radical right-wing voters into his nets. Didn’t Nicolas Sarkozy achieve this feat in 2007? But at the time, the right was the hunter. She fell prey to Reconquest and the RN, which carved up Valérie Pécresse in the first round of the presidential election. When one is weak, one must impose one’s singularity. Proximity to stronger rivals carries the seeds of obliteration.
Finally, justifying the independence of LR by its sacrosanct “competence” is daring. The formation has been vegetating in the opposition since 2012, its self-proclaimed status of “party of government” is covered in dust. This qualifier is more like an artificial respirator than a promise for the future. The LR deputy for Aisne Julien Dive notes, annoyed: “They can’t do better to give the truck to the extremes.”